Saturday, August 04, 2012

This is like one of those picture games in (Insipid) Highlights For (Vacuous) Children: Can you find at least four things wrong with this photo of the Old Orange County Courthouse? (And no, the missing cupola and my mediocre photography don't count.) They were shooting episodes of the FX series American Horror Story at the Old Courthouse Friday and today, and a few changes were made to make it more believable as an insane asylum. Now I can truly say I work at the funny farm.

Wanna open a Bob's Big Boy franchise in this still-mostly-in-tact, classic,1960s Armet & Davis-designed Bob's Big Boy building on 17th St. in Santa Ana? It's available, and wouldn't it be great to see it restored with stained glass and its original early California motif? (I wonder what happened to all those big paintings of rancheros and such.) Sadly, the new Bob's that have opened (and in some cases already closed) seem to be missing a lot of the classic elements, including their once excellent "Silver Goblet Milkshakes," vegetable soup with barley, etc.

With a major wreck on the 55 Freeway yesterday, I took an alternate route to work, which took me past this old cafe at Main and 3rd St. in Santa Ana. Someone has done a nice job of cleaning it up. I only hope that something worthwhile moves in. It would be a great spot for a mini-Ruby's.

Thanks to the Santa Ana Historic Preservation Society for inviting me out to give a historical talk at their big annual gathering last week. The folks working to save the Sexlinger House and orange grove won an award for their preservation efforts, Babe Ruth made a guest appearance, the family of J. Wylie Carlyle were thanked for donating his antique piano to the Howe-Waffle Museum, and Josh "DJ Gummo" McIntosh spun some great records from the 1920s. (Playing Culture Club is not retro. Playing Jack Teagarden IS!) In the photo above, SAPHS President Alison Young discussed upcoming events.

You know, I do try to keep track of the various history-related groups in O.C. and link to all of them in the right-hand column of this blog. But somehow the Orange County Jewish Genealogical Society slipped right past me until now. You're invited to attend their next meeting, at which the topic will be "Hidden Resources at the National Archives," on Aug. 19th, 10:30am-12:30pm at Temple Bat Yahm, 1011 Camelback St., Newport Beach. The speaker will be longtime archivist (and genealogist) Kerry Bartels. For more information, email
Sandybee1@Cox.net. The event is open to all at no charge.

Okay, if nobody else is going to play, I guess I will -- there are bushes covering both the cannons and the State Historical Landmark plaque, lights have been added to the front steps, and there are bars on the windows to keep the crazy people in (or the zombies out? you never can tell these days).

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